Halifax Business Community Ask Finance Minister To Keep Funding Alive This Fall
HALIFAX – Business leaders from across Halifax and Nova Scotia are asking the federal government to keep emergency support programs going in Atlantic Canada. The letter, written by the Nova Scotia Business and Labour Economic Coalition, highlights the importance of the wage subsidy and rent subsidy programs for struggling businesses hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are asking the federal government to review the continuing impact of Covid-19 on these sectors in Atlantic Canada and refocus supports to levels that ensure highly affected sectors, including tourism and hospitality, can weather the remainder of the storm,” states the letter addressed to Chrystia Freeland, the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
“The members of the NSBLEC agree that an extension and expansion of the CEWS and CERS would not only benefit these hard-hit sectors but the economies of Atlantic Canada and the entire country more broadly.”
The letter was signed by nearly 40 business associations and individual business from across Nova Scotia including Cineplex, Atlantica Hotel, and the Halifax International Airport.
The Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy payment rates are set to gradually decline until September when the program will either be renewed, or it will end. According to the government’s website, a business with a 70 percent or more revenue drop will see subsidies decrease from 75 per cent coverage down to just 20 per cent between June 6 and September.
Those businesses with a revenue drop between 50 percent and 70 percent will see their subsidy rates decline from 40 percent down to 10 percent during that same time frame.
The Canadian Emergency Rent Subsidy, which has helped struggling businesses pay their commercial rent, is also set to expire on September 25. This program was important in reducing business expenses as it subsidized rent up to 65 percent, depending on how much revenue a business had lost.
In an interview, Halifax Chamber of Commerce Vice President Kent Roberts explained that Atlantic Canadian businesses are at a different stage of financial recovery from other parts of Canada. Because the region shut down so early, and so often, to combat Covid-19, economic recovery is taking longer. Roberts’ goal is to “make sure they don’t look at Canada with a broad brush.”
“We were conservative, and we had a healthier population, but maybe a bit of a slower return to the economy,” said Roberts. “Whereas the rest of the country, certainly out west, they were more open throughout and their economy was not as impacted.”
“If they look broadly at Canada, and they say, ‘oh the economy is recovering fine,’ but we’re several weeks behind the rest of the country.”
On top of keeping the programs going, the business group is also hoping the wage subsidy will be brought back to its former glory. When the feds introduced the program in 2020, all eligible businesses received a 75 percent subsidy, rather than being put on a sliding scale with the subsidy decreasing in value over time.
Roberts believes if the wage and rent subsidies are not renewed and bolstered, it will be a tough second half of 2021 for a lot of local businesses. “A quick reduction of elimination could have dire effects on the economy through the fall and into the end of the year.” “Without those subsidies, we’re going to be in big trouble in the fall.”
Business Truth & Reconciliation